Executive Transactions

Gannett has named TOM BEUSSE to the newly created position of President of USA Today Sports Media Group. Beusse, most recently President & CEO of Westwood One, will be responsible for overseeing business and strategy for sports initiatives at USA Today, as well as Gannett's 82 newspaper properties and various other media entities. He will work at Gannett's N.Y. offices (Gannett).

GET YOUR MOTOR RUNNIN': Hendrick Companies has retained RAY EVERNHAM to "consult on special projects" for the motorsports organization. Evernham's role will be to "help with the development of the Hendrick Performance retail brand of high-performance parts, vehicles, products and related services." Evernham is "leaving ESPN," where he had been a motorsports analyst (AP, 1/4)....NASCAR has promoted Managing Dir of Licensed Products BLAKE DAVIDSON to VP/Licensing & Consumer Products. Davidson has been with NASCAR for more than 15 years (NASCAR)....Kentucky Speedway has hired DAVID MARTIN as Dir of Marketing & Sales. Most recently, Martin worked for GMR Marketing (THE DAILY)....DEI Exec VP & GM JEFF STEINER has "left the organization to pursue other opportunities" after less than two years. DEI has not named a replacement (SCENEDAILY.com, 1/4).

EXECS: The NCAA named DONALD REMY General Counsel & VP/Legal Affairs. Remy is a Partner at Latham & Watkins, LLP, where he specializes in litigation. He will join the NCAA on March 14 (NCAA)....Keeneland has named WALT ROBERTSON to the newly created position of VP/Sales (Keeneland)....Cleveland-based Home Team Marketing has opened an L.A. office and hired ADRIENNE BIEHL as VP (HTM)....MASN has hired PETE KERZEL as Managing Editor of MASNSports.com. Kerzel most recently penned an Orioles-centric blog and provided coverage of the MLB team for CSNBaltimore.com (MASN).